Torode's last words to me were that if I opened my mouth he would smite my kin in Sercq till not one was left." "And he told me you were such an inveterate liar and troublesome fellow that he had had enough of you, and only did not kill you because of your people, whom he knows," he said, with a knowing smile.
Torode's forethought staggered me somewhat, but I looked the captain squarely in the face and said, "I am no liar, monsieur, and I have had no dealings with the man save as his prisoner." But I could not tell whether he believed me or not.
"And your mind is made up not to obey orders ?" he asked, after a moment's thought.
"I cannot lift a hand against my country, monsieur." "Place him under arrest," he said quietly, to the man who had brought me there.

"I will see to him later;" and I had but exchanged one imprisonment for another.
That was as dismal a night as ever I spent, with no ray of hope to lighten my darkness, and only the feeling that I could have done no other, to keep me from breaking down entirely.
What the result would be I could not tell, but from the captain's point of view I thought he would be justified in shooting me, and would probably do so as a warning to the rest.

He evidently did not believe a word I said, and I could not greatly blame him.
I thought of them all at home, but mostly of my mother and of Carette.

I had little expectation of ever seeing them again, but I was sure they would not have had me act otherwise.

It was what my grandfather would have done, placed as I was, and no man could do better than that.